What is Sites@UMW?
Sites@UMW is free to every member of the UMW community. It provides users with a quick way to craft a website without worrying about performing maintenance but provides limited options for customization.
How to Sign Up?
Step 1: Visit UMW Domains
The first step to gaining your own Sites@UMW account is to visit UMW Domains. Once there, you’ll be on a landing page detailing some differences between Sites@UMW and Domain of One’s Own. Once you are sure that Sites@UMW is the one you want, scroll down and click on the button that says “Sign Up for Sites@UMW” (Fig. 1).
Step 2: Type of Account
After you click the button, you will be taken to a page that will give you more information about Sites@UMW. At the bottom of the page you will be asked whether you want to create a user account or a user account and a site (Fig. 2). Creating just a user account will allow you to join a professor’s website and creating a user account with a site will allow you to create your own website.
Depending on which one you select, there will be slightly different steps for you to follow.
User Account
If you picked a user account, the steps below are for you.
Step 1: Dashboard
Once you click this option, you will be taken to this dashboard after signing in with your Net ID and password (Fig. 3).
In this dashboard, there are a couple of things you can do.
My Sites
My Sites is one of the things you can click on your dashboard (Fig. 4).
When you click on it, you will be given a list of all the UMW sites you’ve made. At the top corner, you’ll also have the option to create a new site (Fig. 5).
Get Support
On your dashboard, you will also have a button for getting support if you need help (Fig. 6).
Profile
One important thing to set up is your profile. You get to your profile by going to the sidebar and clicking the profile button (Fig. 7).
If you join a class website and want your name to appear on your posts and comments, this is where you would go to accomplish this. You can also do things like set a profile image here.
Step 2: Creation
Now with all the details and the set up complete, you can create your own website.
Create an Account & Site
If you picked a user account & site, the steps below are for you after you log in with you’re UMW ID.
Creating Your Site
If you are building your site, the next step will include picking your Site Domain, Site Title, and Privacy settings (Fig. 3).
Your site domain comes first in the URL, in front of umw.sites.net. There is no way to remove umw.sites.net from the end of your site URL. If you want a more personal URL and more creative freedom, you should create a Domain of One’s Own account.
The site title is what you want your website to be called. You can always change this later.
The last thing is selecting your privacy settings. Here you can choose whether or not you want your site to be visible to search engines.
When you finish selecting your answers for these options, you can hit the button to create your site and start building your site out.
